Improv Grad — March 4, 2024

John Agliata

4 months ago

🧩 Today’s Puzzle Pieces 🧩
Redemption🎶
Long COVID😷
Play Time 🎤

tell me

THE DAILY UPDATE

The song in my head when I woke up: “Redemption Song,” by Bob Marley

Favorite line from the song in my head when I woke up: Won’t you help me sing/These songs of freedom/’Cause all I ever had/Redemption songs

Morning Tunes: No commute today, but Shave-n-Shower songs were all Bob Marley …

Three Little Birds
Natural Mystic
Waiting in Vain
Turn Your Lights Down Low
No Woman, No Cry

Something I’m looking forward to today: My bi-weekly space trip.

Something I’m looking forward to in the next seven days: A woo-woo online event called “How to Reprogram Your Brain for Healing With the Power of Your Relationships” on Tuesday evening.

Something I’m grateful for from yesterday: Graduating my Level 2 improv class!

What I’m writing: Yesterday’s Two Crappy Pages involved me writing a story for a Johnny Boy Marketing client about research being done into using biotechnology to help the environment through having microbes eat carbon and produce fuel from it.

What I’ve written: When I started suffering symptoms of Long COVID, I started to chronicle my journey. Here’s the last entry in that journey: Five Things I Did To Kick Longhaul COVID’s Ass.

Today’s STD (Stoic Though of the Day, you perv): “The person is free who lives as they wish, neither compelled, nor hindered, nor limited–whose choices aren’t hampered, whose desires succeed.” — Epictetus

John’s translation of Today’s STD: “What are your obligations? Sure, everyone has some. But how many things would continue just fine without you giving a second thought to them? A crapton of things, that’s how many. So stop doing those things. Be free. Live as you are meant to live.”

improv

Yesterday was my last Level 2 improv class at The Improv Shop in St. Louis. Doing this whole improv thing has been a step well outside my comfort zone. I don’t know exactly what I expected when I started, but I didn’t expect what I’ve found.

The improv community is the most accepting and supportive group of people I’ve ever been around. Though I haven’t formed the tight relationships that I am so sorely lacking in my life, I have found people who are encouraging and who have my back when I’m out there trying to do a scene.

Here’s the thing: I really don’t know if I’m any good at this improv thing. I know I enjoy it. I know I have fun doing it. But am I any good at it? I have no idea. It’d be nice to say that it doesn’t matter. It does. I want to be good at improv. I want to make people laugh or cry or feel something … or even just forget the shitty day that they were having before they came to see a show.

Improv has helped me do just that. This Level 2 class has coincided with a lot of nasty crap going on in my life. No matter how badly that was making me hurt, I knew that on Sunday I’d get to play for a few hours and forget all that bullshit. Do I wish it wasn’t there waiting for me when those two hours are done? Absolutely. But two hours of not thinking about that stuff is a welcome respite, and I’ll take what I can get.

I now have to pause my improv journey so I can coach Boy The Younger’s baseball team through its spring and summer season. But I’ll be back in the fall, and I’m looking forward to it.

please help

Would you please help a brutha out? I’ve created a weekly eNewsletter called News-B-Nuts in which I’ll be sending out news nuggets and witty commentary to subscribers. If you can, would you support this endeavor for just $5 a month via Patreon?

More From ‘A Puzzle Known As Life’

Court appearance — June 25, 2024

🧩 Today’s Puzzle Pieces 🧩Hurt🎶Renewables🌎Fight The Power👮 THE DAILY UPDATE Three Little Things To Notice and Be Grateful For: Pursuit of Wordle Godhood: Today’s result: Three. I pretty much am a deity. Wordle 1,102 3/6 🟩⬜🟨🟨⬜🟩⬜🟨🟨⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Pursuit of Connections Godhood: Today’s result: Five. Sometimes guessing is fun. ConnectionsPuzzle #380🟪🟪🟨🟪🟩🟩🟩🟩🟨🟨🟨🟨🟪🟪🟪🟪🟦🟦🟦🟦 The song in my head when…

THE DAILY UPDATE

More From ‘A Puzzle Known As Life’

Share this: